Trailing hot on the heels of yesterday’s Manu news (Manunus!) that he will be watching basketball from incredibly fantastic courtside seats for the next two months while wearing a $5,000 suit like the rest of us insanely wealthy society folk, comes the follow-up jab-cross-jab-hammer combo that Memphis forward Zach Randolph is also out a couple months with a slight tear in his knee. A slight tear in Z-Bo’s knee means a slight tear in the eyes of his fantasy owners. How’d you like that homograph? Way to kick a guy while he’s down by calling him a nasty name. No, no. Homograph. Mr. Italics failed grammar class, apparently. There was no “grammar class!” It was called language arts, you jerk! Anyway, Randolph is out until late February and in his place are a number of fill-in options that are the fantasy equivalent of a woman breastfeeding in public: you know nothing will come of it and you shouldn’t pay any attention, but you’d always wonder about it if you hadn’t checked it out. So who are the suckling teets in this scenario? Rudy Gay, O.J. Mayo, Marreese Speights and Dante Cunningham. Scenario 1 would have Gay slipping into Randolph’s position, allowing Mayo to see a huge boost in minutes. Scenario 2 has Speights and Cunningham playing something like a 60/40 split for PF minutes. Like most truths, I think the answer will lie somewhere in between these two scenarios, which will make absolutely no one happy. Gay’s already uneven production will take a hit due to his time out of position. Mayo will see an increase and is probably the most must-add of those involved owned in fewer than 50 percent of leagues. Speights will see more than his career-high 16 mpg, but not much more because, frankly, I’m unconvinced big boy can handle many more minutes. And Cunningham will remain Cunningham. A lot of you are going to ask me about Speights’ projected production in these next 6-8 weeks. My guess is somewhere in the ballpark of 24-28 mpg, 11/7/1, with a block and .475/.750 percentages. Cool? Cool. Here’s what else happened yesterday in fantasy basketball.

Stephen Curry – Left the game … again … with an ankle injury … again. You’ll stash him and go about scrapping until he returns to your lineup … again. Would developing cankles help his situation? Like interior body fat insulation?

Dorell Wright – 0-for-2 in 27 minutes. I’m still not ready to drop him, but I sure ain’t playing him.

Evan Turner – Dropped 21/6/4. Then he picked it up, shined it a bit and stuck it back in his pocket for another game in the near future. #DareToDream

Eric Gordon – Returned after a couple games off to shoot a rusty 22/6, with 3 steals and 2 blocks. That’s not rusty enough to keep him out of your lineup. RELEASE!

Al-Farouq Aminu – In for the injured Ariza, went 0/4/0, on 0-for-4 shooting in 20 starter’s minutes. This is only mildly worse than ol’ Trev’ would have done.

DeMar DeRozan – De biggest DeMerit I gave DeRozan last year was that he DiDn’t shoot DeThree very well (made just five). Six games into DeSeason, DuDe is DeStroying ‘em (10-for-16, including five last night alone). He won’t keep making them with such a high efficiency, but if he keeps taking them, we’re likely watching a huge step forward for the guard.

Dwight Howard – Chunked 28/20, with 3 blk against the Wiz. No complaining there. Still though, he’s shooting .418 (28-for-67) from the line a tenth of the way through the season. If missing 58 percent of the shots they give away for nothing is wrong, I don’t wanna be Dwight.

James Jones – Sank four threes on his way to 14 points in place of the staycationing Dwyane Wade. Flash’ll be back for the next game. Don’t bugger with Jones, he was just making a cameo for the Pacers. Call him Indiana Jones.

Marshon Brooks – Scored 17 against Boston’s D, then twisted his ankle and left the game. It doesn’t sound as if he’ll miss more than a couple games, if that. We’re dealing with a small sample size with the 23-year-old Brooks, but his per minute stats line up quite favorably to those of a 23-year-old Ben Gordon. Gentle Ben shot the three and dished better, Brooks grabs a larger number of rebounds, but basically, with Brooks, we’re looking at a solid Sixth Man on a good team or a legend in, you know, New Jersey.

Rodney Stuckey – Left the game after injuring his groin. Is it me or have there been an abnormal number of groin injuries already this season? Of all the muscles I was pretty sure wouldn’t need conditioning after a long offseason, the groin was on the top of that list, ’cause … you know. If Brandon Knight is available, a-hunting you should go.

Danny Granger – 2-for-13 last night (1-for-7 from the arc). He’s now shooting .317 a tenth of the way through the season. Danny Granger needs a Backup Plan-y Granger. The well-rested Adam apologizes for that last sentence. The sleep-deprived Adam just isn’t feeling your critique, dawg.

Kenneth Faried – Manimal doubled his professional career playing time by playing 10 garbage time minutes at the end of this one. He dumped an electrifying 7/4, with four blocks on a defenseless Kings team. Perhaps this small performance begets more minutes. Perhaps not. Probably not.

Kosta Kouf0s – 10/11 in 25 starter’s minutes. It was his first career dub-dub. So should you pick him up while Nene is out? Well, let me rephrase that first sentiment: this was a 7-foot tall basketball player’s first game in which he scored 10 points and pulled down 10 rebounds at the same time; something all giant humans should be able to do with ease.

Iman Shumpert – Returned after injuring himself on Christmas Day. Played 30 minutes and ended with 18/5/3, with 2 stls a blk and 4 3ptm. Yes, you should grab him. No, the Knicks have no one else that can facilitate. Yes, you should go get him now before someone else does. No, not the guy breathing heavily behind you, I’m talking to you. Go.

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Follow Razzball on Twitter and those of you overseas can tweet me on your way to work or school and know that when you do so, the ding will wake me from my slumber and freak me the hell out!

Im trying to build up a keeper team I took over this yr(10 team h2h;5 keepers per team).Kobe is my most valuable trade piece and so Im thinking about offering Kobe/Bass/last pick for Bynum/Jack/1st rd pick.

The guys from the other owner’s roster that I would want are Bynum,Jack and Eric Gordon,Thornton,Millsap-but Bynum is the guy I really want.

Adam! First, let the record show I dumped Ariza for Mayo. I feel I can now list my roster before you without as much shame. That being said. Last week I was offered Pierce for Harden. Now that Pierce is up and running again, I’m pondering revisiting this deal. Thoughts?

@AL KOHOLIC: I wouldn’t rule that out by May. Not approaching that this month, though.

@Wolfpack: I’d take a fly on Shumpert. The scoring might not outdue Brooks, but almost everything else almost certainly will.

@Oilcan Giuseppe: Hehe. Yeah, I think it was. Everything with your trade sounds reasonable, except for Jack. Why are you keen on him in a keeper league? Is it because you need a PG and can’t swing an elite PG AND Bynum for Kobe?

I was offered Mike Conley for Marcus Thornton straight up; right now, Rondo’s my only PG. I’m loving Marcus so far, but I’m worried about assists (although I have LBJ). Do you think Conley is worth it in the long run, though? Thanks, love the site…

@Adam: i must tell you,this is as good a fantasy site as any,GREY is of course the man,but you really know your shit and do an awesome job my friend,5 stars and a bottle of tequila to you.Friendly,informative and personal ,its a gift to be tnis good at anything,thanks for everything,ill probably be hooked on basketball also from here on in ,P.S. the wife isnt as happy as i am hehe

being offered Rudy Gay for my Deron Williams…I’m not a huge fan of this straight up but then again i’m loaded with Guards (paul,holliday,jack,nelson,afflalo) but up front only have G.Wallace,P.George and then Markeef Morris and Hickson…So, could easily use another F…

Would i be selling too short for D.Will?too much for me to ask for Gay/DeRozan for D.will?

@Jeff: I like it if you’re the one getting Smith, Jennings, West. Also, Granger’s filling up the box score, so I’m not sure he’s in “buy low” territory, but if you want to frame it that way to Granger’s owner, hit him with that awful FG%.

@RD: Nice of you to say. I’d prefer to own Thornton over Conley, but Conley will amass more assists by the end of the year than Thornton. Easy. It just sort of depends how badly you need assists.

@AL KOHOLIC: Haha. Real nice of you to say, buddy. As always, happy to do it. Even happier if – like you – people are getting more involved in fantasy hoops. That’s the biggest compliment any of us writers could hear.

Pg- Lawson, Jennings, Nash, T. Parker
Sg – Kobe, Harden, Delfino
Sf – Gay
PF- Nene, Noah, Gasol
C – Monroe, Gortat
With a lot of my players able to play multiple positions, do you see me in need of making any trades for deficiencies, or is my team set?

And would you trade lawson or lowry for kevin love? I’m not sure if I need him when I already have Gasol, Stoudamire, Frye, Garnett, Ibaka, Iggy and Batum who all can rebound..at the end of the day it wont matter if I win rebounds by 10 or by 50..

@Jay: No, it looks good. Perhaps if you switched a PG for a SF, you’d be covered, but admittedly, I’m nitpicking.

@Eng: Scared about all the above, but Hibbert’s not too high a price. How necessary are Hibb’s stats to your squad?

@Cory: Joe Kettle ain’t playing that far above his head. Maybe he makes one fewer three every other game and misses an extra shot here and there. As long as he stays healthy, this is your Toronto starting PG.

@El burro: I’m thinking Rush, Smith, Thompson and Sugar Nate see minutes in that order. I don’t love the eventual production of any of them. Monta’s going to score 30 a night and either Wright will step up or the Warriors are going to lose by 20 until Curry returns.

@Daniel: Why not drop Douglas and grab Brooks for a bump in points? I wouldn’t trade Love for anybody. Why not trade Gasol or Amar’e for Lawson or Lowry? I’m not saying you should, but I’d do either of those before releasing Love.

Neal got a nice boost in minutes and a starting gig, do you think he’s worth more than Afflalo? Both of them would be filling the same needs for me pretty much so it’s just a matter of who the better player is.

@Daniel: Oh, oh, oh. I see. My mistake. I didn’t read it correctly. The way I see it, even if you’ve got rebounds locked up, if you have a chance to flip Lowry or Lawson into Love, you have to go for it. Then, you can flip some of you excess rebounds like Amar’e or Gasol for someone else. Adding Love would be adding the best player on your roster. You can’t pass that up. Also, I’d go ahead and drop Douglas for either of the other two forwards. I’d prefer Wright, but Thomas wouldn’t be a bad speculate either.

I would miss Hibb’s blocks but I have lots of rebounds. I have Varejao on the bench (hoping he starts blocking to his career norms) which is why I feel I could spare a center but I think I’m going to chuck in a 2-1 and shoot for Iguodala.

BTW, the detailed answers you give are both awesome and seriously appreciated. Razzball was always just a baseball site to me but first football and now basketball have already become my number one resources in their respective fields thanks to you, Grey, and Doc.

Thanks adam. Can I get your thoughts on Danny Green out there in San Antonio? And Drew Gooden? I’m in a 10 team league, 13 roster spots..My worst players to drop are Tyrus Thomas and Anthony Morrow, and Frye !

@Daniel: I like Green more than Neal (as I said earlier this week – look it up!), simply because he’s got a better downtown shot and was left on the opening day roster while Neal was not. That speaks volumes. I don’t think he’ll play most nights like he did last night, but Danny Green represents something, whereas seven days ago he represented nothing. Drew Gooden is only as good as Andrew Bogut’s most recent injury. Once Bogutron is is all the way back, Gooden becomes a bit player.